Christmas Carols
by Rhapsodystar
Summary: Geordi can't keep up with Christmas, especially when Guinan asks him to lead her Carol Night! R&R please. This might seem like fluff but please read.


_I began this shortly after Halloween, I didn't have much christmas spirit but I thought I'd have a go. Geordi's song was created off the top of my head. It also took me three days to remember that Worf's adoptive parents were Russian so there would be the possibility he liked snow... So I had to include it! I'm not very good at writing Picard, Wesley or Worf so it's a bit off.. I think Guinan's dialogue is also a bit off but that's just me.. Read and Review please!_

* * *

**Christmas Carols**

_Christmas is coming, the snow beginning to fall; presents are for giving no matter big or small…_

It was three days before Christmas, decorations were being put up, cards were being written… Data was trying to wrestle Spot into a festive collar... Geordi sighed, no matter how many times he told himself that he should be more cheerful he just kept thinking about the work he had to do. The holodeck had a fault that needed fixing; the turbolift door was stiff, the engine kept making a strange noise, the list was endless. He looked away from the window just in time to see Guinan walk over humming a Christmas carol.

"Is there something wrong Geordi?" She asked.

"I don't know Guinan, it's just I've got a load of work to do but no time to do it." He replied.

"Well maybe it could wait until after Christmas."

"That's what Data keeps saying." Geordi sighed, "It's come too fast."

"What?" Guinan asked.

"Christmas." He replied, "Christmas has come too fast."

Guinan smiled, "Try forgetting about work for a few days, let Christmas come and go, help take down the decorations and _then_ do the work."

Geordi looked at her, silently cursing the way his Visor worked, he hated the lighting in Ten Forward.

Guinan looked towards the door; someone was shouting about thirty metres down the hall.

Geordi went down the hall and found the door to Data's quarters open, "Data?" He asked.

"Hello Geordi." Data said, looking up at him from the floor.

"Data, why are you on the floor?" Geordi asked.

Data stood up, "Spot." He replied.

"What about her?"

"She did not like the collar."

Geordi supressed a laugh, "It's nice enough."

Data picked the collar up from the floor; he looked from it to Geordi without moving his head.

"So maybe the tinsel is a bit much…" Geordi said, "But, maybe she doesn't like the colour."

"Geordi, Spot cannot see the colour red. The collar is red and green. I can hardly believe that the colours are the problem."

Geordi looked at the collar, it was quite large. He did the maths in his head, "It's too big."

Data considered making a comment of that but changed his mind. He put the collar down. He didn't think a feline-sized bobble hat would go down any better either.

On the bridge, the mood was carefree and everyone was talking about Christmas. _Nearly _everyone. Worf hated the idea of the celebration that had been declared a day-off for everyone. He looked around, Christmas was everywhere. A holly wreath had been put in front of the viewscreen and decorations the children had made were draped all over the place. He sighed; still, he had three more days to get used to it. He stood up and walked off, a piece of tinsel getting caught on his head as he left. As he walked down the hall the sparkling caught his eye, he pulled it off his head and let it fall to the ground. He glanced at the paper snowflakes hung on the wall, he didn't mind them, they reminded him of winter as a child, seeing snowfall had been fascinating, _pity there's no weather in space… _he thought moodily. As he stomped down the hall, Alexander ran out of the schoolroom, pursued by two other children with tinsel. The three of them were laughing hysterically; he crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the wall. Once the children had run off, Worf started back down the corridor, suppressing a smile.

In her quarters, Troi was looking into the mirror, arranging a piece of silver tinsel into her long black hair, she smiled, she didn't know who would come to see her that day but the tinsel in the place of her usual hair bobble was sure to bring a smile to their faces. She ordered the computer to play some Christmas carols and looked over at the box of decorations on the floor; she pulled a long green piece of tinsel from it and a collection of baubles in varying shades of silver and sat on her bed, threading them onto the tinsel. She loved Christmas, it made everything better. Problems weren't problems at Christmas. She heard the sound that signalled that someone wanted to come in.

"Come in!" She called, taking the tinsel and baubles over to the sofa.

Geordi entered the room, Troi looked at him with confusion, he was visibly depressed.

"Is there something wrong Geordi?" She asked.

Geordi's shoulders drooped. He sighed, "Christmas." He replied vaguely.

"Christmas?" Troi echoed in confusion, nodding for him to sit down.

Geordi sat down, "Yeah. I mean its three days from now and everyone's been saying that all jobs can be put on hold but I just can't think that."

Troi breathed out slowly, giving her time to think. _How am I supposed to answer to that? _She thought.

"Is it really so important?" She asked.

"Well I s'ppose the Holodeck can wait…" Geordi replied.

"What else is there to do?" Troi asked.

"The turbolift door is stiff and the engine's making a rattling sound… the door to engineering is squeaking…" Geordi said quietly.

"Well the engine probably needs to be fixed but the engineering door can definitely wait." She said, giving him a reassuring smile.

"It is annoying though… Geordi mumbled, partly to himself, "What do you think about the turbolift door?"

"Wait until someone gets stuck?" Troi replied in trying to humour him.

Geordi smiled, "I'd like to see Worf stuck in there." He said with a laugh.

Troi laughed, "If that's how you're thinking and it works…"

"Thanks." Geordi said, still smiling, "I'll see you later."

As he left, Troi heard him begin to sing,

"_Christmas is coming, the snow beginning to fall; presents are for giving no matter big or small…"_

The words of his song reminded her of something, she reached under her bed and pulled out a bag full of small presents wrapped in shimmering silver star covered paper, Christmas presents for all the senior staff.

She took it down to the common room, a towering Christmas tree covered with tinsel, lights and baubles stood in the center of the room. The piles of presents underneath the tree were nearly as tall as the tree itself. She arranged the gifts around it and looked around, the mood was light, a group of ensigns were making Crackers in a corner and occasionally bursting out laughing, Commander Riker was sitting in the opposite corner with Wesley, talking about Christmas.

"Deanna! Come join us!" He called with a smile.

She got to her feet and crossed the room to join them. For the first time she noticed that they had been playing a card game, eighteen cards were spread out on the table, The cards were numbered one to nine and each one had a different letter on them.

"What are you playing?" She asked.

"Christmas." Wesley replied, " It's simple enough, you pick one of your cards and then try to name as many Christmas related things as you can starting with that letter."

He took nine more cards out of the pack and spread them out in front of her. She turned them over one at a time, 'Christmas' was spelt out on them, the only problem she could see with it was that there was two of the letter 'S' in the word.

"One hint, try to avoid 'I' unless you can think of anything besides Icicle." Riker said.

Troi laughed, "So, shall we start?"

Nearly two hours later, mostly because Wesley kept coming up with a hundred and fifty things each time, the game had nearly finished and all the letters beside 'I' were piled up in the centre.

"Together?" Commander Riker asked.

Wesley and Troi nodded.

"Icicle." The trio said together, putting the card down at the same time.

Riker's Combadge chirped, he stood and walked out of the room towards bridge, leaving Troi and Wesley to put away the cards.

"Christmas is coming." Wesley said.

"It is." Troi confirmed, sorting the cards into nine neat stacks.

"Everyone's really-" Wesley stopped midsentence and looked up at the lights, they were flickering, the other people in the room had noticed too.

Troi never got to hear what he had to say because he dashed off to engineering as soon as the lights had stopped flickering.

She gathered the stacks together, but knocked them on the floor with her arm when she reached for the box.

She crouched down to pick them up. She blinked and Data was crouching down with her, helping to pick up the cards.

"Data, where did you come from?" She asked with a laugh.

Data didn't answer, instead he proposed a question of his own, " Counsellor, what is the meaning of Christmas?"

Troi smiled, the question seemed like something a child would ask, "Everyone has their own response to that Data." She said.

"What is yours?" He asked.

Troi thought about it, She had two very different responses but didn't know which to give the Android. On one hand, she thought of Christmas as a time for loving and being loved, a day of beauty, peace and happiness, but on the other, she felt it was a day of giving, receiving and generally being closer to those around her. Not being able to decide she told him both, Data listened silently to her explanation, then helped her to tidy the cards away and offered to take them back to Wesley. Confused, Troi thanked him and went back to her quarters.

When she got there, it dawned on her. Data had been attempting Christmas spirit. She smiled, feeling silly that she hadn't recognised it. Then she noticed something, when she'd left, music had been playing in the room, it had stopped. Suddenly the lights flickered and went out.

On the bridge, they had the same problem. When commander Riker arrived, he had to kick the door of the turbolift to get out. Captain Picard looked at him with a look of concern on his face.

"The lights have gone out all over the ship Commander." He said.

"I had noticed Captain." Riker replied.

Wesley ran onto the bridge, "We've had to turn off all non-vital systems Sir."

"Including the lights?" Riker asked.

"No, sir, they went off by themselves." Wesley replied.

Picard sighed, he knew Geordi should have made the engine top priority.

Suddenly the lights flared to life.

Down in engineering Geordi was under part of the engine from the waist up, "We should have done this weeks ago Data." He said.

Data handed him a Spanner, "We should have Geordi."

Geordi took the spanner and used it to detach a broken part; he held it up to Data who handed him a new one.

"Thanks Data." He replied and reached up to put it into place.

The lighting in engineering flickered and Data looked up at the light.

Geordi hit the part with the spanner, almost whacking his visor in the process; he pulled himself out from under the engine and got to his feet. "Done. Now we can get on with Christmas."

Data nodded and the two friends left engineering side by side.

Later that day, Geordi was trying to find a box of Christmas decorations; he got down onto his stomach to look under his bed, he looked around, he felt around, then he pulled himself up and sat back on his heels. _Where is that box? _ He thought as he looked around the room. _I had it last Christmas… I didn't put it back under the bed… Did I put it in the cupboard? _ He stood up and crossed over to his cupboard and opened it, about ten metres of tinsel fell out and wrapped itself around his boots and he smiled,

"That's where I put it." He said.

Geordi untangled his boots and reached up to pull the rest of the decorations down, he knocked over a box of baubles and they fell out, he gave a shout of surprise and annoyance, from the corridor Data heard him,

"Geordi? Are you alright?" He asked.

Geordi looked round, "Yeah, but I didn't realise I had so many baubles."

Data looked amused as one of the baubles bounced off his friend's head.

"Help?" Geordi asked, "I can't reach the box, the shelf's too high."

Data walked over, Geordi stepped aside and let him reach up to the shelf .Geordi raised his eyebrows as Data had to lift himself up onto his toes to reach the box. _I'm sure that shelf has gotten higher… Data could reach it last year… _ He thought.

Data pulled the box down, one hitting his head as he did so.

"We are equal now," Data said, "I have fallen off the transporter pad, you have fallen off the transporter pad-"  
"A bauble hit my head and now one's hit yours." Geordi finished.  
"Indeed." Data replied.

Geordi grinned, then he remembered something, "Guinan's organised a carol night tonight, she's said we all _have_ to be there..."  
"You do not wish to attend?" Data asked as he examined a cracked bauble.  
"No, it's just I don't wanna sing."  
"You do not have to." Data said.  
"That's the thing, I randomly started singing after I went to see Troi, someone must've told Guinan, 'cos she wants me to lead the carols." Geordi replied.

Data's shoulders drooped, then he changed the subject, "Where will you put these decorations?"  
"On this." Geordi said, gesturing to a rather battered Christmas tree in the corner of the room, "Come on, help me."

Later evening, the whole crew entered Ten-Forward, Guinan took one look at everyone and realised Geordi wasn't there. She looked again to make sure she hadn't overlooked him in the crowd and she didn't notice Picard walk over to her.

"Geordi isn't here." He said.  
Guinan turned, "No, he isn't, but neither is Worf."  
"Well I didn't expect him to come."

Geordi was hiding in his quarters, Data poked his head into the room, "I'm not going to the the Carol night." Geordi said.  
"You are not?" Data asked.  
"No." Geordi replied.  
"Your absence has been noticed."  
"Oh really." Geordi said.

Data frowned and walked off, when he entered Ten-Forward, Captain Picard came over to him.

"Did you speak to Geordi?"  
"He is not coming, he does not want to sing."  
"I'm not surprised." Picard replied with a smile.  
"You were expecting his absence?" Data asked.  
"Why would he be here? Geordi isn't one to sing. On that note, I'm going to try and talk Guinan out of insisting he does." Picard replied.

Guinan had conveniently disappeared.

Doctor Crusher came over to Captain Picard, a piece of blue tinsel draped over her shoulders, "Where has Guinan gone?"

"I have no Idea." Picard replied.

"She's just disappeared."

"Conveniently so. I need to speak to her."

"About what?" Crusher asked, brushing her hair from her face.

"About insisting Geordi leads the carols."

"Oh dear. This started earlier didn't it? Half of the deck heard his song; even more of the ship heard him humming the tune."

"I believe so."

Suddenly, the soft sound of a Christmas carol started, Guinan had reappeared.

Picard went over to her, "Guinan, I need to talk to you. Firstly, why have you insisted Geordi lead the carols, and secondly, where did you just go?"

Guinan smiled, "Answering your questions out of order, I went to talk to Geordi, and I didn't strictly insist, I just asked him several times."

"'Several times' meaning?" Picard asked.

"Six or seven."

Picard raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, fifteen times, but I've spoken to Geordi and-"

Picard cut her off, "_Fifteen times_? If I have ever heard of a case of someone insisting someone else did anything, this is the worst."

Guinan clasped her hands together, "Alright, I admit it, I insisted, but hear me out, I spoke to him, and I'm going to lead the carols instead."


End file.
